There has been a recent increase in the popularity of pool lighting. While, pool lighting has been around for many years, new fixtures allow for greater creativity and expanded use both for swimming and non-swimming events. Pool lighting can be used to make an attractive back yard look outstanding.
Many of the issues associated with such lighting have not been fully appreciated. For example, some illumination devices, especially in the beginning, used lighting elements that would get extremely hot and cause rapid deterioration of the entire lighting assembly. Such heat would lead to increased maintenance by the pool owner and constant replacing of not only the light assembly unit, but also the entire inlet housing. Sometimes a pool would need to be drained just to do the necessary maintenance.
Despite these and other issues, pool lighting has become increasingly popular. Initially pool lighting was used strictly for safety purposes. Nighttime swimming, although not terribly popular, was done with much greater safety at night with lighted pools for obvious reasons.
After adding lighting, perhaps initially for safety reasons, pool owners and visitors, and others noticed the calming effort of nighttime lighting on the pool water. Visitors and pool owners alike noticed the tranquil effect sitting by the pool at night had with such lighting.
The increased popularity led to additional enhancements. For example, color lighting has frequently been added to create nighttime pool water as a home's water feature. Such lighting provided viewers with greater interest and had the same or greater benefits to peaceful and tranquil viewing. Additional enhancements such as sequential color lighting have also been added.
While, the above and other enhancements have clearly made lighting swimming pools, more desirable and even more readily available, none of the above has focused on the issue of heat dissipation. For example, halogen lighting has commonly been used until quite recently. However, the energy demands for such lighting have prompted government officials to discourage and even ban their usage. Today, high and ultra high intensity LED's are the main source of pool illumination lighting elements. These heating elements give off a tremendous amount of heat individually and exponentially additional heat when combined in series such as that favored in colored pool illumination systems.
Additionally, many of today's pool illumination systems use a reflector or reflector plate. This increases the focus and intensity of the lighting for greater and more desirable effects. However, as can be appreciated, such a reflector does not relieve, but rather increases the amount of heat in the illumination system.
What is needed is a structure for allowing a pool lighting installation to be cooled without resorting to undue structure or expensive maintenance. The ideal structure would conform in general physical appearance and dimensions of existing pool water inlets or returns, while providing cooling to the needed structure of the illumination structure.